I have fond memories of Bon Echo Provincial Park—swimming with family at its beach, gunnel-riding canoes, climbing up and cliff jumping off Bon Echo Rock. In Bon Echo: The Denison Years, Mary Savigny tells the story of Bon Echo’s history and how it ended up becoming a Provincial Park.

Merrill Denison, playwright and author, received the land from his mother, a Walt Whitman devotee (thus the massive inscription on site). After a lifetime of summers spent at Mazinaw Lake, Denison decided to gift it to the Government of Ontario so it could be used in perpetuity for “recreation, conservation and education” (97).

Bon Echo: The Denison Years is a charming glimpse into the history of one of Ontario’s finest Provincial Parks.

Savigny, Mary. Bon Echo: The Denison Years. Natural Heritage Books, 1997.